Tony Hawk

Went outside the other day and was greeted by this hawk hanging out in our front yard. Luckily he(she?) was kind enough to wait around a few minutes for me to go and grab my camera and zoom lens. The hawk had found a squirrel for dinner (I'm guessing its the one that had gotten plump this summer eating all the food from our bird feeder).

Burns Park

I drove through Burns Park the other day, the first time I've been there since the park reopened after last year's tornado. The damage there was immense. The little Funland amusement park was completely destroyed. Many of the park's pavilions were damaged, along with the RV Park and the soccer fields. But the most notable change is the trees - or the lack of them. The tornado took down over 20,000 trees in just Burns Park alone. You can easily trace the path of the tornado through the park, following the long gash where it looks like the forest was mercilessly clear-cut.

But the tornado just narrowly missed a few of the park's most notable landmarks. The old pioneer cabin, built in the 1850s, was just outside the tornado's path.





Luckily a lot of the park's forest remain undamaged:





And the Burns Park covered bridge was undamaged by the storm as well.



Which is good, since all residents of North Little Rock are contractually obligated to get at least one portrait taken at either the Old Mill or the Burns Park covered bridge (I say as a native of Dogtown).





It'll be interesting to see how the park changes, as new growth replaces the lost trees and a new Funland is built.

Star Search

Last week I got a message from a photographer on Instagram (Jason @dream.tones) who was wanting to meet up and get some Milky Way pictures while he was going to be around Little Rock. We decided to visit a few abandoned churches in the Delta area around Scott and Keo. It was a pleasant evening, the heat of the summer had finally broken and it felt like Fall was finally approaching. Plus it was mostly clear, just a few light clouds in the sky.

We eventually ended up at an abandoned church near Keo, one that I've taken lots of pictures at in the past. There were lots of stars overhead, and the Milky Way even made an appearance. There was just a little bit of distant light pollution (from Pine Bluff, I think).



Across the street from the church is a small cemetery, which had this really interesting tree growing in it. So we headed over and tried to get a few shots of the tree with all of the stars above. Luckily the light pollution here (from Little Rock, I think) was kinda helpful, since it helped to silhouette the tree against the dark night sky.

Branch

The small town of Branch sits in the very southern tip of Franklin County, in western Arkansas. Branch was founded back in the early 1900s along a rail line that connected several coal mines. That rail line and the coal mines aren't around anymore, but there are a few old buildings still in Branch.





North of town is this abandoned church, tucked away amongst some pine and oak trees. It's been so dry this summer that some of trees are already starting to show some fall colors.





The tall grass in front of the church was home to a large population of grasshoppers, who leapt and jumped out of my way as I walked around the building for pictures.

Lake Conway

If you've driven down I-40 past Lake Conway recently, you might have noticed that it's not really a lake anymore. The lake was emptied in order to start a five year project to clean the lakebed and to build a new dam on Palarm Creek. It's the first time that the lake has been emptied in 75 years.

I used to work in Conway (at AETN, many many years ago) and I used to head out on my lunch break to take pictures around Lake Conway. So I was interested to see what it looked like now, without water. It's been a hot and dry summer here, and in some places the lakebed has turned into a plain of dry and cracked mud.





Walking out onto the dry lakebed was a little eerie. It felt like the lake would have been the perfect setting for some sort of dystopian post-apocalyptic movie, with the cracked mud and old tree trunks jutting out of the ground like shards of broken glass.







Every once in a while you'd see a random piece of debris, which had probably been resting underwater for decades. There were several pieces of cinderblocks, along with some old beer cans and bottles. And also what looked like an old sunken boat.



The old lakebed wasn't completely devoid of life. There were a few plants trying to grow on top of the cracked mud. I'm definitely not a plant expert (as proven by our large collection of dead houseplants and our yard filled with weeds), but this almost looks like a pumpkin vine?





The formations in the cracked mud happen when "wet, muddy sediment dries up and contracts. A strain is developed because the top layer shrinks while the material below stays the same size. When this strain becomes large enough, channel cracks form in the dried-up surface to relieve the strain. Individual cracks spread and join up, forming a polygonal, interconnected network of forms called 'tesselations.'"



I walked around, trying to take pictures of the interesting patterns in the mudcracks...



At one point, I noticed that some of the mud was a slightly darker and different color. I got closer, thinking that the change in color might make for a good picture...



And it turns out that the mud is a different color because it's not completely dried out. The cracked layer on top isn't thick enough to support someone walking on it, which is bad news for anyone foolish enough to step on it.

So it was a bit of a surprise when I took a wrong step and sunk into the mud, down almost to my knees. There wasn't anyone else around, so luckily no one saw me struggling to extract my legs out from the murky depths of Lake Conway. The mud was a dark gray, and it smelled pretty bad. This was the view after I made it back to solid ground.



After that I learned my lesson and stuck to the drier areas.



There are lots of old tree stumps sticking out of the ground still, which I guess have been here since the lake was built in the 1940s?







After that I headed back to the car, leaving muddy footprints along the way...